Official company and property records in India
India maintains separate registers for companies, land, insolvency proceedings and civil status, each held by a different authority under its own access rule. No single register covers all four. A foreign applicant reaches some records directly, others only through a licensed registered agent, and the access regime for several registers here is still being confirmed against the primary source.
The registers present
A filing deadline abroad rarely waits for a certified Indian record to surface from the right office, and the first difficulty is that there is no single office to ask. This page maps the public records India maintains across four separate systems, each with its own access rule and its own document form.
A company search India runs against the India company register, which holds incorporation, registered office, directors and charges for entities formed under the law in force in India. A search returns the current filed position; historical filings sit behind the same record but are pulled as separate documents. Whether a certified extract is issued to an applicant outside India without a local intermediary is a point still being confirmed against the primary source.
Land and property records are not held in one national system. Each state maintains its own land revenue records, and within a state the record is usually organised around a survey or plot number rather than an owner's name. Where the key is a plot or survey number, a search by name alone tends to return nothing useful, so the applicant needs the property identifier before approaching any office.
Deeds – sale, mortgage, lease – are registered separately from the land record itself, at a sub-registrar office covering the district in which the property sits. The registered deed and the land record are two different documents, produced by two different offices, and a request for one does not return the other.
Charges created over company assets – mortgages, pledges of shares, floating charges over a business – are filed with the companies register rather than with the land record, even where the underlying asset is real property. A lender's charge on land held by a company therefore appears on the corporate record, not on the state land record, and a search of one without the other misses half the position.
Corporate insolvency and liquidation proceedings are handled through a tribunal system rather than through the companies register. A pending or closed insolvency case sits in the tribunal's own record, separate from the company's filed accounts and separate from the land record of any asset the company might hold. The access regime for tribunal filings by a party with no standing in the case is still being confirmed against the primary source.
Civil status records – births, deaths, marriages – are kept at state level rather than nationally, and the office to approach depends on where the event was registered rather than where the person now lives. A birth registered in one state is not searchable through the civil registration office of another.
What is closed here
None of the four systems above functions as a single national index searchable by an outside applicant without a local step. The companies register is the closest to a unified system, and even there, whether a certified copy is issued directly to an address outside India, or only through a locally appointed agent, is still being confirmed against the primary source.
Land records carry a further limit that is structural rather than administrative: most state systems record the plot, not the person. A search for every property held by a named individual across a state, let alone across the country, is not something the record is built to answer. Where the applicant has the plot number the record responds; where only a name is held, it typically does not.
Tribunal and court filings are not aggregated into a public index searchable by company name across the whole system. A filing exists in the record of the specific bench or court that handled the matter, and locating it starts from knowing which bench that was, not from the company name alone.
Civil status records carry a comparable limit in reverse: the office holds the event, not a person's full history. A marriage registered in one state does not appear on a birth or death search run through another state's office, and no single request returns a person's full civil record across their life.
None of these records state whether a company is solvent, whether a director is trustworthy, or whether a property is free of undisclosed claims. Each record shows only what was filed with that particular office, on the date it was filed. A missing entry can mean the event never happened, or that it happened and has not yet been entered – the record does not say which.
How documents from here are used abroad
A certified India registry extract is the document most often requested for use outside India, typically to support a registrar filing, a bank account opening or a tender submission in another jurisdiction. Where the receiving party asks for an apostilled copy, the apostille certifies the signature and seal on the India certified document, not the accuracy of what it states.
Property records travel less often, and when they do, it is usually alongside a deed used to demonstrate title in a cross-border transaction rather than as a standalone document. A sub-registrar's certified copy of a registered deed is the form most often accepted, rather than an uncertified extract from the state land record.
Tribunal filings are requested abroad mainly where a foreign creditor or counterparty needs to confirm the status of an Indian insolvency proceeding involving a company they deal with. The tribunal's own certified order, rather than a summary, is the form that receiving parties tend to ask for.
Civil status certificates travel for personal rather than corporate purposes – visa applications, family reunification, inheritance matters – and the receiving authority abroad usually specifies whether it wants the original state-issued certificate or an apostilled copy of it.
Where the receiving jurisdiction has not joined the Apostille Convention, legalisation through that country's own diplomatic mission in India replaces the apostille, and this adds a further office and a further certified layer before the document is accepted.
Access barriers a foreign applicant meets
Several Indian registers are built around a national identifier issued to residents, and a search or filing interface built around this identifier does not always offer an alternative route for an applicant who does not hold one. Where the identifier is mandatory rather than optional, a foreign applicant reaches a dead end at the login step, before any question of fee or turnaround arises.
A second barrier sits at the certification stage rather than the search stage. Some offices issue a certified copy only to a party who appears in person or who is represented by someone holding a registered power of attorney recognised locally. Where a document must be collected in person, applying from outside India does not by itself produce a deliverable certificate.
A third barrier is the state-level fragmentation of land and civil status records described above. Knowing that a record exists is not the same as knowing which of several dozen offices holds it, and the wrong office returns nothing rather than pointing the applicant onward.
Where any of these barriers applies, the route that remains is a request handled through a licensed registered agent in the jurisdiction, who holds the standing or the local presence the register requires.
Route summary
Issuing authority: varies by record – the companies register for corporate filings, the relevant state land office or sub-registrar for property, the tribunal or court that handled a proceeding, and the state civil registration office for a personal record.
Fee: Price on request.
Turnaround: the turnaround for each of these registers is still being confirmed against the primary source.
Language of issue: records are typically issued in English or in the regional language of the state office, with certified translation arranged separately where needed.
Availability to a foreign applicant: direct access varies by register; several routes require a licensed registered agent in the jurisdiction.
Reuse terms: reuse terms for these registers are still being confirmed against the primary source.
Which register holds company records in India?
Company records for entities incorporated under the law in force in India sit in the India company register, covering registered office, directors and charges. Land, insolvency and civil status are held in separate systems, each with its own authority, so a company search India returns filed particulars for the entity but not property or civil status information for the same person.
Can a foreign applicant obtain documents from India directly?
Direct access varies by register. The companies register is the most centralised of the four systems, though whether a certified copy reaches an address outside India without a local intermediary is still being confirmed against the primary source. Land, tribunal and civil status records generally require a locally appointed party or in-person collection, which routes most requests through a licensed registered agent in the jurisdiction.
What is not recorded in the India registers?
None of the four registers records whether a company is solvent, whether a director is trustworthy, or whether a property is free of undisclosed claims. Each shows only what was filed with that specific office, on the date filed. A missing entry can mean the event never happened, or that it happened and has not yet been recorded – the register does not say which.
How long does it take to get a certified company extract from India?
Turnaround depends on which office holds the record and whether the applicant approaches it directly or through a licensed registered agent. The turnaround for a certified extract from the companies register is still being confirmed against the primary source, and no fixed figure should be assumed until it is.
Is an apostille enough for an India certified document used abroad?
An apostille certifies the signature and seal on the document, not the truth of what it states. Where the receiving jurisdiction has joined the Apostille Convention, an apostilled copy is usually accepted; where it has not, legalisation through that country's mission in India replaces the apostille as the required step.
Do Indian land records show who owns a property by name?
Most state land records are organised around a plot or survey number rather than an owner's name. Where the applicant holds the plot number the record responds directly; where only a name is held, a search across a state's land record does not reliably return every property connected to that person.
Tell us the jurisdiction and the record you are after; we return the route, the issuing authority and the limit. If the document does not exist in this jurisdiction or cannot be obtained for you, we say so before you pay and we do not take the order.
REGISTRUM obtains and delivers official records issued by public registers and licensed registered agents. This page describes what those records contain and how they are obtained. It is not advice on the legal effect of any record. To order, write to info@registrumfirm.com.